The conversion of an olefin into another olefin is well known to one skilled in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,949 discloses a process for olefin conversions in which water is added to an olefin to form a water-containing olefin followed by contacting the water-containing olefin with an acidic alumina. In addition to an alumina, a ferrierite has also been employed as catalyst for olefin conversions. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,560.
One of the problems facing the industry is the formation of coke which is a semi-pure carbon during olefin conversions. In order to bum out the deposits of coke, an olefin conversion reactor is periodically shut down resulting in a substantial loss of production of olefin conversion product. Additionally, coke is a poor heat conductor as coke is deposited. Consequently, a higher temperature is required to maintain the desired reactor temperature thereby increasing fuel consumption and giving shorter reactor life. Additionally, the known olefin conversion processes generally produce abundance of lower valued heavies and lights.
Another problem is that the coke formed can deposit on the surface of a catalyst thereby resulting in decreased catalystic stability and activity.
A further problem facing the industry is that, during an olefin conversion process, a appreciable quantity of undesirable by-products are also produced. Undesirable by-products decrease the efficiency of an olefin conversion process.
Therefore, there is ever-increasing need for developing a process which has higher olefin conversion than that which has been achieved in the art because certain olefin conversion products can have important commercial and industrial applications. For example, isobutene which can be produced from the disproportionation of propylene or isomerization of n-butene can be further reacted with methanol to form methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) which is an important and useful additive in gasoline as an octane improver. There is also a need to develop a composition that can be used for olefin conversion with reduced coke formation during the conversion process.